Here's to 100 arbitrary years

By Newt Briggs

Centennial shmentennial. Anyone who knows anything about Las Vegas history knows that people--both indigenous and European--were kicking around the valley long before the 1905 land auction. What about the miners, the Mormons, the Paiutes and the Anasazi?

"It's funny because there were actually so many things that were already in Las Vegas at the time," says Su Kim Chung, UNLV manuscripts librarian and author of Las Vegas: Then and Now. "The McWilliams townsite had already been established, and there were tons of buildings and saloons and mercantiles--things that already existed. Really, I guess it's all about the influence of the railroad."

Indeed, the railroad was a key player in the founding of modern Las Vegas. In 1902, Montana senator and railroad tycoon William Clark bought 2,000 acres of the Las Vegas Ranch from Helen Stewart and promptly initiated plans for a railroad connecting Los Angeles and Salt Lake City. Railroad construction began in 1904, and Clark parceled the remaining land and sold it at auction on May 15, 1905. The resulting settlement prospered with the railroad and boomed when the Hoover Dam project commenced in 1931. The rest, as they say, is history.

Still, there's no denying that Las Vegas had long been inhabited before Clark's fateful railroad auction. So, if you're a stickler for yesteryear, you could celebrate the 176th anniversary of Mexican scout Rafael Riviera's discovery of the valley. Or you could celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Mormon settlers' arrival in Las Vegas. Or you could get technical about it and wait until 2011 to celebrate 100 years since the city's incorporation.

Or you could just take the mayor's advice: "What year do you think the Centennial should commemorate?" Goodman says. "Do you think it's 1902? Then you're three years late, okay. You should have celebrated it back then. What am I going to say to you people? I don't make up the date."